Glitches, Misprints and Scams (Oh My!)
Over the past couple of weeks, major retailers have had glitches, misprints and scams on each of the major video game consoles. Best Buy had a misprint in their 11/9-11/16 ad which advertised an Xbox One with Kinect Assassin’s Creed Unity Bundle for $349 instead of $449. Shortly after the misprint was noticed, many people reported that their local Best Buy posted flyers in their store correcting the misprint and no longer accepted the ad price. However, many people reported that they were able to price match at other stores, such as Walmart and Target without any problems.
Sears also recently had a glitch in their online pricing. For a short time, they had 3DS XL systems and Wii U systems both listed for $59. This error was noticed fairly quickly and was corrected, but if you were lucky enough to come across this error before they corrected it, Sears honored the price. Some people also reported successfully getting other stores, including Kmart and Walmart, to price match Sears before they changed the price.
Most recently, people have been using Walmart’s price matching policy against them to scam them into selling PS4s for $49. Walmart had a very broad price matching policy that included price matching Amazon. Someone created a fake Amazon listing for PS4s for $49.99 and people then printed off that listing and took it in to Walmart to price match. A lot of people reported getting Walmart to price match this “sale”. Shortly after this scam was reported, Walmart changed their price matching policy to no longer match ads from third party sellers, auction sites and marketplace vendors.
If I would have come across the Sears deal in time, I probably would have picked up a Wii U for $60. I’m not sure my conscience would have allowed me to take part in the Walmart PS4 scam, but it would have been tempting for sure. Did anyone get in on any of these “deals”? There are even more legitimate deals coming up with Black Friday right around the corner. Make sure you check out our Black Friday preview article for more details on the best Black Friday deals coming up!